This was to be expected really.
Since the fix, and people not being able to quit anymore, the number of players of reasonable rank playing has dropped off incredibly sharply. Whereas before it was a struggle to find people of 400+ rank to play and especially people of 450+, now it seems that there simply aren't people of this rank playing much at all and even the number of 350-400s has dropped off sharply.
I'm now chaining games against people ranked very low 300s, and in some cases high 200s, meaning that again the syndrome of not being able to level due to earning fractions of a point for a win is around. I havent lost against one of these yet but the simple fact is that decent players do exist at lower levels and both luck and first turn can occasionally beat you in SE and losing to players of this level is going to drag you down 20 games' worth of rating.
The only solution to this? Stats Wipe. 450-550 players are not going to play in order to keep their precious ranking (a ranking which would be nigh impossible under non-exploitable circumstances) which leaves the whole system broken.
Wipe stats and fix it!
*disclaimer: this is not backed up by hard stats, just lots of observation, game refreshing, and looking at the rnak of games being played.
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